


December 4th - Medievallock

by ohdrey89



Series: Mollstrade Advent Adventurous Time Warp 2015 [1]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Advent Calendar Drabble, Alternate Universe - Medieval, Anderson Bashing, Awesome Molly Hooper, BAMF Lestrade, BAMF Molly, Blood and Injury, Castles, England (Country), F/M, Healers, Historical Inaccuracy, Knights - Freeform, Major Character Injury, Medieval Medicine, Silver Fox Lestrade, Swords
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-04
Updated: 2015-12-04
Packaged: 2018-05-04 22:03:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5350079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohdrey89/pseuds/ohdrey89
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taking part in an Advent Calendar of Mollstrade (Mollestrade, Lestrolly) for the festive season. </p><p>December 4th - Molly is the daughter of Lord Hooper and their neighboring enemy, Lord Lestrade attacks their castle while it is exposed and is looking for something other than gold as his prize.</p>
            </blockquote>





	December 4th - Medievallock

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, I know I am taking away from my other story but that chapter is coming along... well enough. But fear not, I am here to console you all with this piece! 
> 
> My apologies if some of the history or medicine here is shaky, I kind of took some liberties but I was inspired by the Last Kingdom a bit. But really Lestrade came mostly from Richard Burton's Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew. A bit brutish but I do love it! I hope you do too. Rawr. 
> 
> Disclaimer: We didn't create it, we're not making money from it. But that's not going to stop the ideas from coming, so here we all are anyway. We might as well live.

**December 4th - Lord Lestrade the Fierce**

\---

The winter sun shone through the windows of Hooper castle, as Lady Molly descended the stairs into the Great Hall. Before her, the many ladies in waiting and serfs prepared the Dining table and the hall for the Christmas celebrations. While they did their duties, the servants completed them with an extra bout of enthusiasm that had the Lady smiling, the festive atmosphere was infectious. They were all anticipating the return of the knights from defending the kingdom from the scots and the Norse raids that threatened the welfare of their lands and people daily. When word of the attacks reached her father Lord Hooper, the elder man had turned livid and sent word to the knights of Hooper Castle to find the heinous villains and dispatch them.

The serfs and ladies of the house worried over the brave knights that went upon the excursion, and Molly had worried over her father who had barely slept as he waited to hear from his valiant knights. Then word of their return had sent the castle into raptures and the holiday planning seemed to descend upon the castle overnight. Now in the afternoon sun that made the newly fallen snow sparkle, the castle was filled with the warm of holly boughs and spruce wreaths. Old Samos stood upon his old ladder as he took direction from Mistress Hudson, the head maidservant in the household. Molly watched as the old man wobbled back and forth upon the ladder while many of the other servants became derelict in their duties to watch as the Mistress demanded the man reach well beyond his reach to fix the bough of holly he was hanging from the wall of the castle. Molly watched as the rickety ladder almost tipped over.

“If you please Mistress Hudson, do not lean on Old Samos so! That ladder is more of a danger than it is a help.” Molly descended the stairs and encouraged the elder serf down from the creaky sticks. “Lest we have an accident.” At Molly’s approach the rest of the servants scattered as Mistress Hudson curtsied in supplication to her royal highness.

“As you instruct, my lady.” Mistress Hudson agreed with a strained smile. The Lord would not like Lady Molly being in such familiar ways with the serfs. Molly smiled in understanding to the headmistress of the house. It wasn’t the first time Molly had helped the old man around the castle. He had been in service to the family Hooper since before Molly was born, when her father conquered this land and established their family as Lord of this part of Northwestern England. It wouldn’t do as the Lord’s daughter to treat even the eldest, most useless servant with malice. And the Lady was well known for her kindness and gentle ways. She was very well liked among the servants and serfs, and she did much good among her kingdom reaching out to the poor to keep them fit and healthy. More than once she encouraged her father and the family within the castle to go with less so that the rest of the kingdom would have food to survive the harsh winters that trembled across the fields. The frigid winds that blew against the stone walls that day were no different.

Molly encouraged the frail elder from the ladder and held onto him with steady, sure hands. He was almost down before the second to last rung when it broke with a great shatter. The old man shrieked as he fell and pulled the Lady down on top of him on the floor. He moaned in pain.

“My lady!” Mistress Hudson shouted, and the surrounding men sprang into action lifting the Lady off the old codger. She waved them off in time to witness Mistress Hudson wailing at the old man. “How dare you treat the Lady thus?! I should inform the Lord as to your idiotic, clumsy foolishness.”

“What clumsy foolishness?” The father and Lord made himself present before his servants as they readied the great hall. All of the servants immediately dropped the food, projects and decorations bowing and curtsying before the Lord.

“It was nothing, Papa.” Molly assured the Lord.

“But milady-” Hudson disputed.

“It was nothing!” Molly seethed to the mistress until she curtsied and moved aside. “Please, Young George see to Old Samos, put him before the fire and prop his legs upon the footstool. I’ll be right over to check up on him.” Young George, all muscled brawn lifted the elder man into his arms and did as instructed.

“It seems to be more than nothing.” The Lord looked on concerned at the scene. He never really did like Molly rubbing alongside the serfs and poor. But Molly refused to be obedient when faced with the starving and ill. He blamed her mother’s influence. In Molly’s youth, while her mother lived, she sought out those that were across his kingdom, healing and feeding those she could and taking her young daughter along to teach her of the ways of the maternal line of Molly’s lineage. Being a healer and Seer, many came far and wide for her mother’s healing touch and Molly herself inherited the gift.

“Mistress Hudson was simply trying to see the house decorated but pushed elder Samos too much, he almost fell father and the ladder with him. As he was climbing down this miserable shoddy ladder, the second to last rung fell and he pulled me down on top of him when he fell.” The Lord looked over the ladder and it was on its last legs. This wasn’t the only part of the castle that was in disrepair. The Lord was long on the throne, and his age wasn’t just showing upon his face, but the walls of the castle told of his aged ways as well.

“It’s alright my dear daughter, no harm done. I’ll see the ladder’s replaced with a sturdier one and that the younger lads see to setting up the rest of these festive baubles.” The Lord assured with a jolly chuckle.

“As long as it is completed by the time our knights return from siege. It will be a raucous celebration upon their return and the castle should be decorated to befit the occasion. I do so love Christmas.” Molly kissed her father first upon his ring as she curtsied and then upon his cheek. She left the bemused Lord to instruct his servants and turned her attentions to the elder man.

\---

Molly was wrapping Samos’s swollen ankle in a poultice as the horns of the neighboring kingdom blew. The maidservants were sent scattering in fear. The younger girls of the castle all hid next to Molly and Mistress Hudson, some even had fat tears of terror rolling down their fair cheeks. All the women screamed excepting Mistress Hudson and Lady Molly as the doors to the castle burst open and armored men blew in with the raging snow. Twenty well-armed men in total scattered themselves throughout the great hall. The knights that wore the unfamiliar colors of the Lestrade crest took command of the room, rounding up the servant men that proved a threat by the blades of their sword. The Lord Hooper stood before the chaos, proud and unmoving. He was the calm of the storm.

“Easy men, let’s remember some mercy here. There’ll be no spilling of our brethren’s blood upon their own stone floors.” The grumbled voice that spoke from the blinding light of the castle door made himself known once he stepped into the shadows within the castle walls. Molly looked on as the knight removed his helmet and exposed the tanned skin of a man that enjoyed the outdoors and silver hair that sparkled in the light as his eyes sparkled with the mischief he was creating. “That would be unseemly during the holiday season. And we’ve already shed blood this day.” Molly gasped as the man approached her and the women standing with Old Samos before the fire, it was the Lord Lestrade himself! Molly tried to ignore the quickening of somewhere deep inside her as she observed his scruff and boyish smile when their eyes met. The lady looked down to the other ladies with a blush. She did notice that the lord held himself with the stiff, strained gate of a man in pain.

The lore surrounding his dismantling of the dreaded Moriarty and his hold upon his surrounding lands was widely known. After Moriarty gained the lands from the Lestrade clan in a shrewd political move, the Lord Lestrade was a fierce knight commanded the remaining loyal men he could and took his land by beheading the Black Knight Moriarty. It was whispered on wagging tongues throughout the land that Lord Lestrade fought and beheaded the man single handedly and with the very smile he wore today on his face. Was the Lord out for blood this day? Molly eyed her father with fear that pounded against the walls of her breast as she gripped her crucifix between her fingers until she felt the talisman dig into the flesh of her hand. She prayed to the good lord above and the spirits of their land for protection. Out of the two lords of the Lestrade land, it is told the frightened servants much preferred Lord Lestrade’s fierceness to Moriarty’s base cruelty.

Lestrade came over to the fire, Molly noticed with a wince he tried his best to hide, and looked down upon the chair where the old Samos reclined, with his poultice. “Oi, you there! You’re much too poor to be sitting here. Who gave you permission to sit your disgusting arse on such a plush cushion?” Lestrade demanded with anger and a wry twist of his mouth.

“Why, I sit here under the healing and grace of my fair Lady.” Old Samos looked to his Lady with a peaceful smile. Lady Molly came to the old man’s side.

“I will not have you move him. He is injured and must remain where he is.” Molly looked to the man before with the stubborn rise of her chin. The Lord Lestrade eyed the lady with curious lift of his eyebrow. Not many women talked to him like that, barring the Mistress Donovan that tended to the Lestrade castle. Lestrade felt the corner of his mouth lift up. “Well I’ll just have to deal with you first.” Lestrade reached out to grab at Molly to the objections and instigation of the men both armed and unarmed.

But Molly was faster as she pulled the nearest dagger from its sheath on Lestrade’s belt and applied it to his neck, right where his blood pulsed strong and sure against his flexing muscles. “I warn you sir, I will not be trifled with.” Molly spoke as if she were a timid mouse but with the blade against his neck Lestrade knew the woman would act otherwise. She was becoming more intriguing to him by the minute. He allowed a moment to pass, and without telegraphing his movements, pulled the daughter of the Lord by her wrists until he was pressed up against her back. He twisted the wrist holding his dagger until she dropped it with a cry of pain. He would never hit a woman, but he wouldn’t allow a woman to get the better of him either.

“Careful, try that again and it will be your father’s neck that will meet my sword.” Lestrade grumbled into her ear, licking along the shell of her ear before letting her go so Molly could back away. Lestrade laughed beginning to remove his armor and chainmail. “Very well old codger you make keep your worthless arse in that seat.” Lord Lestrade sat before the fire and propped up his feet upon the table before the fire, kicking off his muddy books once he was without his ankle and shin plates. “Is this to be the only hospitality I am afforded? Bring me a cask of your finest ale and a warm meal. The same for my men! Then we’ll talk.” Lestrade announced to the servants as he sighed. They looked to the Lord Hooper and at his nod vacated the hall to hide and to see to the strange Lord’s bidding. The knights of Lestrade remained but sheathed their swords.

“What brings you here to disturb the peace of my castle Lord Lestrade?” The Lord questioned as he stood before the brutish man that warmed his seat unknowingly upon the Lord’s favorite chair.

“I’ll tell you once I have my ale and I am properly fed.” Lestrade looked to the man with a teasing boyish smile. “Oh and call me Gregory, Lord Gregory.” He looked to Molly with a heated, flirtatious gaze that sent a maddeningly attractive blush to the Lady’s cheeks. He chuckled before he winced and looked to the Lord again, delighted at watching the elder man fume. “Perhaps you might ask your lovely Lady here to bind some wounds I sustained in battle.” Molly then noted the sweat that dotted his brow as Lord Gregory did his best to hide the pain from the room. “Since she seems to be well versed in the art.” Lestrade inquired gesturing to the poultice that aided the swollen ankle of the old man beside him.

“Why did you not mention you were in such need before?” Molly demanded in frustration as she helped the Lord off with his chest mail. She removed his heavy garments and winced at the deep stab wound at his side.

Molly looked to the Mistress Hudson. “This will need staunching and binding. Mistress Hudson, fetch me as many cobwebs as you can find, strip some bandages and get some brandy, whiskey would be better. Check our stores. Oh! And bring my poultice bag from my room.” Mistress Hudson puttered away to do as she was bade with agitated mutterings.

“Cobwebs?! What is it that you plan to do to me woman?!” Lord Gregory screeched trying to climb from the chair. Lady Molly merely rolled her eyes and shoved the man back into the chair with such strength he was still immediately.

“If you want to survive your wounds without the wound sickness, Lord Gregory, you will.” Lady sighed accepting the things she asked of Mistress Hudson. “I have never lost a charge under my care unless death called for them and you will not be the first, sir.” Molly began to sort through the items and first went for the whiskey Mistress Hudson procured from their stores.

“Very well.” Lord Gregory conceded with a leery eye. “Just please promise you’ll kiss it to make it better.” Lord Gregory waggled his eyebrows flirtatiously. Molly applied the liquor without warning causing the lord to hiss.

“I will not promise that this will not sting.” Molly smiled victoriously as she then staunched the bleeding with the cobwebs and then applied a mixture of herbs and honey on top of the wound and wrapped his ribs with clean bandages. As she was wrapping the wound she became curious. “How did you sustain such a wound sir?” Lady Molly enquired looking up to the Lord as he grumbled in pain from the sting.

“We encountered a group of fifty Danes that were heavily armed and due to head off your knights on their return from the battle.” Lord Gregory met eyes with Lord Hooper at the heroic efforts he took to save the man’s own knights from mortal terror, endangering his own. “I took a sword in the gut to save one of my men from getting stabbed in the back. Those Vikings rarely battle fairly.” Lord Gregory winced as Lady Molly tied his bandages.

“I wish we knew how to repay you for your kindness to my knights, sir.” Lord Hooper reached out to shake the man’s hand which Lord Gregory did not take.

“We can speak of repayment after I’ve had my meal.” Lord Gregory smiled eyeing first the Lord then his daughter. The Lord met his daughter’s eye, brimming with worry. He knew what they look between the two meant, and what the Lord Lestrade’s eyeing of his daughter meant. It didn’t bode well for her future.

\---

As they were waiting for sustenance to appear, the bugles of the Hooper knights blew across the valley as their horses hooves pounded around the castle to the waiting stables. Molly watched the doors of the castle until they blew in, in a rush of snow and wind with the night. The knights came into the castle and upon seeing the colors of the rival kingdom drew their swords.

“Easy men, stay your swords unless your Lord says otherwise.” The head knight announced, removing his helmet. “Hail my Lord, how do we find you?” The man questioned. Lestrade knew the man well. He was short of stature but towering in heart.

“I am well, Sir Watson. How fairs my men?” The Lord asked as his knights allowed their swords to rest at ease.

“We didn’t lose any men, so there is thanks to our Lord above for that, but I bring with me guests for the Christmas feast. Lord Mycroft and his brother Sir Sherlock come up from Holmes Manor in the south. They heard of our troubles and saw fit to take arms alongside us.” At either shoulder of Knight John, Mycroft and Sherlock removed their helmets. Where Mycroft wore the traditional hood and grimaced at the state of the manor around him with a snide turn of his lips, Sherlock shook out his wild curls and took in the grand hall around him with a keen gaze.

“You are welcome to my castle good sirs but I fear you find it in a state of precariousness.” Lord Hooper announced gesturing to the Lord Lestrade that sat upon his chosen chair before the fire.

“Sir Lestrade. I suppose that fool Anderson you take along with you during your expeditions still calls himself a knight.” Sherlock sneered, a fumbling knight along the wall removed him helmet with a huff.

“Oi! I’m right here Sir Sherlock.” Anderson exclaimed in outrage.

“Exactly.” Sherlock mumbled with an eye roll.

The women that had excused themselves now returned with the meal for the knights in the room and casks full of ale. A tray was placed before Lestrade and he tore into the meal with relish, making his way through the meat, bread and ale until he could feel himself staved from hunger.

Mycroft spoke as Lestrade drank the Hooper ale. “I wasn’t completely preoccupied with battling our heretic enemies, and I observed the Lord Gregory from upon the ridge leading to Hooper Castle. He was waiting for the castle to be empty of its knights, Lord Hooper.” Mycroft accused with a suspicious glare to the brutish man that smacked his lips and sighed in satisfaction.

“He would be right in that this was premeditated, but not entirely for the reasons you would think Lord Hooper.” Lestrade assured with dismissing wave of his hand.

“Oh and I suppose you had good intentions for waiting until my castle was weakened in its defenses?” The elder Lord questioned with a grimace.

“I wasn’t anticipating running into those Danes that were out for blood from Hooper castle though, that was just good fortune on my behalf and equally good fortune for your men Lord Hooper. It’s not every day that my knights can make sport of Danish blood. But ‘tis much easier to barter for a man’s valuables when he feels there is no other recourse.” Lestrade explained reaching to a nearby maid carrying a large urn to refill his cask. The maid looked to the lord wearily as he made himself free to imbibe of their good ale.

“You see the state of my castle sir.” Hooper gestured to the disrepair that seeped through the decoration regardless of how austere the servants made the walls before them.

“Indeed, you’re right. My coffers appear to be full, whereas yours are empty.” Lestrade looked around at the shabby state of the place with a dismissing gaze.

“What would you have me barter with to protect my people?” Lord Hooper growled in frustration watching with a sinking feeling where the other Lord’s gaze continue to rest.

“You do have a lovely daughter and her dowry to barter with, which upon your death should contain the lease to your lands, castle, and what remains of your gold. I wouldn’t mind plucking such sweet fruit for my bride.” Lestrade chuckled to the curses of both Sir Sherlock and Sir John. The Holmes brothers were regular guests of the Hooper Castle and Sir John was the Hoopers’ champion and best night, neither Sherlock nor John could stand any talk of that kind in reference to their fair Molly.

“I will not give my blessing for such a union if my daughter does not agree to it.” Lord Hooper parried to the surprised objections of John and Sherlock. The elder man silenced them with a hand.

“More consideration than I would think a young lass should be given.” Lord Gregory argued.

“I’ll do it.” Lady Molly called into the tense air of the room. She gaze met with Lord Gregory’s and between them settled a heated gaze that excused the whole room from their presence.

“My dear-” Lord Hooper tried to persuade the young lady to reconsider.

“I know what I do my Lord father.” Molly halted the man from objecting further.

“Very well we shall be married. And at Christmas. A lovely festive air is just what is called for on such an occasion.” Lestrade concurred, sitting up with a proud air.

“So soon, my lord?” Molly questioned with a nervous grip upon her crucifix. “Christmas is only in three days.”

“Yes, my castle is a good two days journey from Hooper lands and I won’t know when I shall be back again. I intend on heading back there after St. Stephen’s Day with my wife in tow.” Lestrade grumbled happily pulling Molly down into her lap. Molly gasped and her objections died upon Lord Lestrade’s talented lips.

The men were ready to object except for how Lady Molly kissed Lord Gregory in kind.

\---

**Author's Note:**

> [Reblog](http://ohdrey89.tumblr.com/post/134522389643/lord-lestrade-the-fierce) the thing, on tumblr. It'll even be hosted on it's own little page I'm delighted to add. 
> 
> I hope you like this and continue to enjoy the festive offerings here for what I hope will be pleasant holidays for all.
> 
> Comments and Kudos are our currency of love, spread the wealth around.


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